“I took an oath to serve this country and give my best at all times. Like I said in the past, no excuse for poor performance from any of my appointees will be good enough…Within the first quarter of this new year, Ministers and Heads of Agencies with a future in this administration that I lead will continue to show themselves.”
– President Bola Tinubu, 2024 New Year broadcast
According to a Hausa saying, the mother hen doesn’t trample on her chicks since it doesn’t love them. It’s a gesture meant to address negative behaviour and impart life lessons. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has demonstrated in recent days that, akin to a hen tending to her brood, he is willing to correct misbehaving younger members of the flock by stepping on them to make it clear that such behaviour is not acceptable.
President Tinubu removed Dr. Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, from her position on Monday. The purpose of the suspension was to give time for a comprehensive examination into the claims of financial misconduct made against her. Hajiya Halima Shehu, the National Coordinator of the National Social Investment Program Agency (NSIPA), was suspended by the President a few days prior. The reason for her suspension was the purported suspicious transfer of funds from the NSIPA account to personal wallets. Even if the two did not immediately deserve to be suspended, it was the proper administrative action to allow them to clear their records and avoid interfering with investigations.
The fact that these two women were more than merely office holders, though, is interesting. Due to their affiliation with the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) and their significant contributions to the President’s campaign, these people are extremely close to the President. People who are aware of the close relationship the two women have with the president assumed he would be patient and not use force. Specifically, during the campaign several had wagered that Betta, the party’s workaholic National Women Leader, would not lose.
However, President Tinubu believes that when accountability and the public interest are at stake, personal obligations and political connections must yield. Not President Tinubu, but someone else could sacrifice the commonwealth of Nigerians and ignore public outrage to save their allies.
President Tinubu has often pledged to prioritize the needs of the general population in keeping with the strong words he swore to on May 29, the day he took office. He had promised to uphold the interests of the country “without fear or favour; affection or ill will.” There would be no sacred cows and no one too great or too tiny to face any appropriate consequence if the oath of office was upheld. This Mr President said repeatedly.
In his latest broadcast to the nation on January 1st President Tinubu reiterated the primacy of the interest of the public above anything else in the way he runs the affairs of the country. “Everything I have done in office,” he said in the televised address, “every decision I have taken and every trip I have undertaken outside the shores of our land, since I assumed office on 29 May 2023, have been done in the best interest of our country.”
When it comes to public interest, the most important thing is to make sure that the people who are entrusted with the commonwealth of the residents do not mishandle or steal from it. In matters of accountability, the people on the lower rungs of the ladder should follow the leader at the top, just as in congregational prayer where the congregation follows the imam’s lead. President Tinubu has done a good job of setting an example in this area for those he has appointed. He views leadership as a matter of sacrifice and service. That is both his catchphrase and the behaviour standards he holds all of his appointees to.
The President gave an example of this self-denial in favor of what is best for the nation as a whole during an Eid-el-Kabir welcome in Lagos last year. He cited the currency abuse he witnessed upon taking office, in which a small number of individuals with close access to power were profiting greatly from the arbitrage exchange system. “I could afford to share the benefit by participating in the arbitrage, but God forbid! That’s not why you voted for me,” he had said.
The phrase “public service” refers to the fact that people in positions of authority regard serving the country as a patriotic duty and go above and beyond in order to do so. It is unacceptable to use these chances to take advantage of others’ generosity or to only acknowledge receiving a work that has been allocated to oneself. For this reason, in addition to misconduct, President Tinubu also listed laxity on the part of appointees as unacceptable.
He had often stated that those who are ill-prepared to provide significant assistance will be removed from the table. The President made sure that each minister received a job description, targets, and key performance indicators to show that this was more than just hollow rhetoric. The idea behind this was to have quantifiable factors so that performance could be evaluated. Second, each minister signed a performance bond with the President at the conclusion of the cabinet retreat, promising to meet the goals set forth for them individually.
The options for everyone are clear. As he said in the New Year’s message, for President Tinubu it is either positive contribution to Nigeria or nothing at all.
*Abdulaziz, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Print Media.
